Paul’s status uncertain for Game 6
HOUSTON » With 51.7 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Chris Paul did a spin move against Quinn Cook and fell to the ground in pain.
He held his right hamstring as his team ran down onto defense, and was eventually taken out of the Rockets’ 98-94 win over the Warriors with 22 seconds left and did not return.
Late Thursday night, the Rockets confirmed that Paul suffered a right hamstring injury. He received treatment after the game and will continue treatment leading up to Game 6 in Oakland on Saturday.
Ona night when Rockets star James Harden-missed all 11 of his attempts from beyond the 3-point line, it was Paul who led the Rockets in Game 5, scoring 18 of his 20 points in the second half to give the Rockets a 3-2 series lead and pushing the Warriors to the brink of elimination.
And Paul’s health could potentially change the series, though it’s too early to tell the severity of the injury.
“Definitely changes things,” the Warriors’ Klay Thompson said. “He made some huge shots tonight, some really tough ones that were kind of deflating at times when he double-pump faked and threw it in. But that’s basketball and he’s a great player. But I’m not concerned if he plays or not — it’s about us at this point.”
Draymond Green echoed that sentiment, crediting Paul with keeping the Rockets afloat — but saying the Warriors can’t put toomuch thought into whether Paul will be on the court in Game 6 on Saturday.
“That’s their focus, not ours,” Green said. “Ours is to prepare as if he’s playing. If he’s not, then we’ve got to make an adjustment. I’d rather adjust to him not playing than try to adjust to him playing.”
• Green had a crucial turnover with 3.4 seconds left and the Warriors down, 96-94.
Stephen Curry passed the ball to Green, and the ball slipped out of his hands.
“We were supposed to score,” Green said. “I lost the ball. There’s kind of not muchmore to it than that.”
Green finished with 12 points on four- for- nine shooting, a game-high 15 rebounds — and a gamehigh six turnovers.
He also hit a few crucial shots late in the game, including a layup with 1:42 left followed by a 3-pointer with 1:15 left that cut the Warriors’ deficit to one point, 95-94.
“We know what we’re capable of,” he said. “We know we can win two games.”
• Andre Iguodala was sidelined Game 5, missing his second straight game because of a left lateral leg contusion.
Iguodala suffered the injury when he collided knees with Harden in Game 3 on Sunday. Iguodala also sat out Game 4 on Tuesday because of the injury.
“Just day-to- day,” Warriors’ coach Steve Kerr said. “He has gotten better each day. He’s dying to play, but he’s not healthy.”
Iguodala has averaged 7.9 points on 47.9 percent shooting and 4.9 rebounds in 27.5 minutes over 13 games this postseason, starting in all but one of them.
• Paul hit a ridiculous shot as the shot-clock was expiring, then mocked Curry’s shimmy celebration.
“It was well- deserved; tough shot,” Curry said. “If you can shimmy on someone else, you’ve got to be all right getting shimmied on. So I’ll keep shimmying, andmaybe he will too. We’ll see what happens.”